{"id":54681,"date":"2020-11-03T00:00:21","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T08:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=54681"},"modified":"2020-11-02T11:41:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-02T19:41:49","slug":"why-questions-good-and-bad-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/why-questions-good-and-bad-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Why questions (good and bad) matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Children are\u00a0naturally inquisitive<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0tolerant<\/a>. Many constantly ask questions. At some point, most of them \u2013\u00a0most of us<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0just stop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why does this happen?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as if the world starts to make perfect sense after several years of living. There are\u00a0social pressures<\/a>\u00a0to stop. To succeed, to be\u00a0recognized as smart<\/a>, children typically feel pressure to stop asking questions and start providing answers. What is 2+2? How do you spell \u201ccat\u201d? What time is it when the big hand is on the 11 and the little hand is on the 5?<\/p>\n

But no one should ever stop asking questions. I say this as someone whose\u00a0job it is<\/a>\u00a0to ask them, and to help college-aged students and adolescents develop the skills to\u00a0ask questions insightfully<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I believe that asking questions should be of the utmost importance to anyone who cares about themselves or others.<\/p>\n

A threat to inquiry<\/strong><\/h4>\n

During the summer of 2020, on TikTok, a young woman named\u00a0Gracie Cunningham<\/a>\u00a0mused about the origins of algebra and about whether math is \u201creal\u201d while applying her makeup. The video went viral when, in a since-deleted tweet, it was posted with the caption \u201cdumbest video ive ever seen.\u201d
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